RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

"Gomenasai Chusa," Rin said, again, to the person being carried in her arms as she hurried out to get another prisoner that would need help getting out of the prison area and back to the safer areas. Once she had another former prisoner, she cradled both she had with her in her arms, waiting for the go ahead to get out.

Everything will be okay.... You're not going to mess this up. You're not going to let these people die....

‘Disassembly and re-construction would be best’ Wazu thought to himself as he continued to look the neko over, considering how to best take the girl apart and place her back together. For that he would need to deactivate her first and then… He realized at that point that such a method was impractical for use now on flesh. Perhaps, he thought, it was best to focus on the first aid training rather than engineering tricks.

Wazu would begin his treatment of the neko quickly, searching for something he could use to elevate her head and legs as well as to immobilize her arms.

“I recommend cooling of injured areas and a deep chest examination once she has reached the proper facility.” Wazu said out loud. At the moment he lacked any drugs or ice to administer to the girl. He also lacked the understanding of how drugs would react with her body as the last first aid class wasn’t exactly focused on how to treat nekos.

After seeing that Wazu was safely away from the enemy, Kai had rushed to the elevator, placing himself on a wall just opposite and below the entrance, firing down on the targets. Such a target rich environment in such a confined space was fun to the soldier, and he was having a good time shooting at whichever targets his AIES labeled as available, using his LASR, as the stronger ammunition also ran the possibility of going straight through the knockoff nekos and damaging those behind. After watching the small arms taking dings and dents out of his Shield, Kai crouched down, placing as much of himself behind the Zesuaium forearm shield as possible, and modulated the energy shield so that it conformed to his body better and allowed the solid shield to take most of the hits, hopefully conserving the other for when something bigger came.

From his position on the wall, the Yamataian could see the mass of enemies flying about, and the feeds from his drones simply showed him the same thing, from different angles. The soldier wondered why they didn't just- yes, that was it. he readied his SLAG, and looked for an opening in the mass that would allow his round to detonate at an optimal spot; one that was closest to the largest mass of fake Nekos, yet farthest from the armor team. Taking a few moments to steady his aim and make sure his shot would fly sure, he fired off the SLAG round into the mass of enemies. Mentally, he crossed his fingers, hoping that it was not caught early by something, which would make it explode nearer the armor team. That would be bad. Very bad.

Yoroko mentaly sighed and quickly chided herself before jumping down the elevator shaft and joining the rest of the assault team on the walls. Yoroko briefly considered using her plasma rifle instead of her LASR but decided that the sacrifice in the rate of fire wasn't worth it. Yoroko took up the position that Nyton had indicated and knelt down against the wall in order to minimize her size so viet she would be harder to hit as she hid behind the DAISY's shield. Once in position Yoroko opened fire with her LASR making sure that the wrist cannon on her right arm was able to shoot at the writhing mass of targets below her while unleashing fire with her LASR.

Yuzuki set the remaining damage control team members to ripping off the protective panels and grating that protected the gravimetric array's various control systems. In some case, they had to employ crowbars and some of the more high-powered cutting instruments to remove the buckled plating. She also directed the lagging be removed from the main power feeds. She wanted to see the pipes. In the middle of space, with no environmental controls, heat and crew comfort were not one of her major concerns. They would need to get into these things.

The gravimetric array whirred away, its various mechanical parts under Yuzuki's personal supervision. Some of the machine - a lot of the machine, actually - was a bunch of science that she did not quite understand the exacts of, but the mechanical parts were what made the chemical ones work. If you supplied the right fuel, made sure all the little gigs and gogs were working, there was nothing to fear. It was when the whole works became inbalanced - too much fuel, too little coolant, or damaged parts - that the thing would overheat and blow. Sure, some things she would have to send to an electronics specialist or just downright figure out herself, but the majority of the system was self-explanatory.

This time something had gone seriously wrong. The whole array was making a terrible grinding noise, and if the compartment had been pressurized, Yuzuki suspected it would have been smoking by now. The heat exaust had probably been clogged and someone would have to go in and find exactly where.

"Yuzuki!"

She looked over at the orange figure in the darkness. There were a few flashlights floating around here and there, but for the most part, if you weren't working on something in particular, you were in the dark. Nobody had thought to roll out trouble lights.

"Hai?"

"The feed couplings had been struck loose, but we managed to reconnect them. We aren't getting much power from the portside capacitators, though, only the load center."

Yuzuki looked around, trying to estimate how many more sprites she had down here. It had totalled, she thought, a half dozen when they had left damage control central, not including herself, and now she could only see four or five. Detaching herself from the deck grating, she floated around the space quickly, swinging herself around using her own gravity, counting helmets.

Eventually she put her hand on the sprite who had flagged her down initially.

"What's your name?" asked Yuzuki, who landed again.

"Ozuno," replied Ozuno.

"We're missing someone, so I'm going to go find them. Take control of this space, and get someone to unsecure the crawlspace in the wing. I'm going to need to get in there, soon."

"What should we do about the capacitators?" asked Ozuno, catching hold of Yuzuki's sleeve before she could float off again.

"Go break out the emergency power cables and create a temporary line. Take the main one offline. I do not want a wild surge hitting this thing."

"Hai."

Taking the flashlight from her belt, Yuzuki hopped from the grating and, brushing aside some of the floating debris in her way, caught hold of one of the pried-open access hatches and entered the skeleton of the ship. She had already checked the visible spaces. All that were left were the invisible ones.

Sumaru finished up helping with the patient, then skimmed across the surface of the floor in his Mindy to the opening into hall way. Using a heat overlay on his visual scanners, he looked for the oncoming enemy and tried to gauge how much time they had until contact. 'Freeman-Juni, I'll hold the rear guard for any that come towards us here as you get the wounded to the ship,' Sumaru texted to Tom, allowing the message to appear to anyone higher ranked. The samurai calculated that he would give the team a good lead on himself so if there was to be any crossfire or shrapnel it wouldn't effect the efforts.

The sudden approach of enemies caught Takuma slightly off guard as he quickly fumbled with computer equipment and returned the laptop to its holder.

Upon receiving the command from Nyton, Takuma pulled the bazooka off the slot on his back and put the LASR in the now open space. After a moment of thought on the situation, the technician swapped the armor piercing magazine that was inside the gun and swapped it for the spare high explosive magazine.

After confirming that his AIES updated his ammo counter, he moved towards a spot near the elevator where he could get a clear shot. Shouldering the gun and crouching slightly, he watched the battle unfold.

"Just give me the word and the bazooka's power is yours."

Like pieces of a puzzle, everything was coming together as coordinated. The elevator opening was becoming a little crowded with vanguards, extraction, and ready demolitions. Nyton noticed his magazine was half full but he decided to swap out for the armor piercing rounds during the next phase.

Kai's SLAG round flew out and managed to hit far enough away that the explosion not only slowed down the enemy but also provided extra cover. The sound of the explosion reverbrated inside the shaft and registered on the DAISY Armor's internal systems decibal meters. If not for the automatic dampening every member would find themselves very deaf.

Chunks of androids that were destroyed rained down upon their comrades although the sight of dismembered robots did little to dissuade them. Rather they continued to float up, some just brushing off the debris as they continued to fire. Their shots were a little less accurate for the time being though.

The androids were slowed enough that Nyton took the opening provided to swap out magazines. Using his VAW, the tendrils reached for his spare magazine, popped the HE magazine out, switched them out and placed the half expended one into it's storage within seconds. All without having to drop his guard.

Nyton sent out a map to the other Assault Team members showing the opening to the fourth floor and an area just above that opening along with a message. The scan also showed the layout of the fourth floor entrance and surrounding areas. With it he sent his message.

We're advancing to this point and pushing the enemy farther down to give the Support Team more clearance to extract. Stay together and maintain our formation as we advance! Once Support Team has finished extraction we will position ourselves to jump into the fourth level. Takuma will fire his bazooka once we are clear and then we will continue to hold them down from the fourth floor entrance while covered to give our barriers a chance to recharge. When they return to extract we will cover them again. Get ready to advance on my mark.

Click to expand...

At the same time he was laying out the plan Nyton sent Tom a text message as well.

When I give you the signal begin moving out. On my mark.

Click to expand...

The smoke was beginning to clear which made the Assault Team more visible. At the same time though it made the enemy just as visible, even moreso. That was when Nyton finally shouted out on the shared comm net. "MARK!"

There was little to do for a navigator and communication specialist, when said individual was assigned to monitor engineers.

Yukari was keeping track of their communication back and forth, focusing on Yuzuki. The Shosa was still wearing her headset, using the inside of her AMES helmet's display to sort everything out. She was also hearing parts of the communication on the surface, whatever was able to be relayed to Hoshi and up to her.

She did not understand all the technical things being discussed by the engineers. But she understood the fighting below, the desperate attempts to push beyond the enemy and save the injured. She wanted to help somewhere, somehow.

So little there seemed for her to do. She did what she could after hearing about trouble lights, gathering a large stock of them in a box and handing them to a passing sprite. Yukari was near the multifunction bay, so it was easy for her.

Hearing Tom, again and again, was not easy. Without anything to do, she had only her thoughts. It was not the palce she wanted to be. But Kotori had told her to be here, so there she was.

"Yuzuki-san, report please. Who is missing?" the Shosa asked.

The maintenance tunnel was warm. Through her environmental suit, Yuzuki could feel the radiated heat from the engine and the lagging she had ordered removed to reduce the stress on the couplings. Even so, if she had not been cased away in her protective gear, she had no doubt that by this time she would have probably been smoldering. The engine could put up with a lot of stress. Flesh and blood, however, couldn't.

Yuzuki's engineering sleuthwork was finally producing results. Further on down the passage, she thought she could hear the telltale whirr of a portable saw cutting away over the grating of the damaged engine.

The sudden transmission from Yukari, whom she had in no way expected to be paying much attention to the damage control channel, made Yuzuki jump. She accedentally brushed her arm against one of the uncovered pipes. It blackened her suit and scalded her through it before she could jerk away. She took a moment to bring herself under control again, biting back the urge to hiss or gasp into the comm. The whirr of the gravimetric engine nearby made it somewhat hard to hear, but she stopped moving and made a special effort to listen carefully, nursing her arm.

"One of the other sprites, Shosa-san" Yuzuki replied. "She disappeared on me. I think she was removing lagging and I just lost track of her."

Yoroko almost automatically snapped a confirmation but stopped herself just before she mentally clicked the 'transmit' button. Don't clog up the communications. Yoroko told herself. Yoroko stopped firing shortly while ejecting what little remained of her clip in the LASR and sticking in a fresh clip from her thigh before beginning the advance. Yoroko sprung out of her crouched position and taking her rifle in both hands Yoroko began firing in full automatic mode using the suppression fire method of bullet hosing instead of the tight controlled bursts that she had been taught to use during her time in BASIC, meanwhile her left wrist mounted PEW joined her right PEW in firing on the robotic nekos that were coming up the shaft. Yoroko's HUD popped up to inform her that her right PEW would soon need to recharge as it was almost out of energy from near continuous use. "You still alive back there Kai?" Yoroko sent to her comrade.

Yukari wrinkled her nose. A sprite did not disappear. No one disappeared on a Star Army warship.

She kept her comm line open with Yuzuki so she could listen. "Miharu, please account for all active sprites' passive OS connections. Note any who are missing."

Miharu took a few seconds to run the indexing, and brought up the list of names for both Neko to examine. "Do you see the sprite's name listed, Yuzuki-san?"

Tom confirmed Sumaru's notes just as Nyton made his mark.

"Ok," he barked to the prisoners. "On me! Move move move!"

Using the cover of friendly fire, the engineer blasted off quickly, leading the way for the prisoners to escape. He fired a few SLAGS to add to the cover fire just before the prisoners filed out of the elevator shaft.

Rin carefully cradled the former prisoners in her arms before she took off after Tom. She made she to protect her charges as much as possible, with her own body if necessary.

Looking over the list was slightly frustrating for Yuzuki. For one, she had never actually asked names when she had been picking out the damage control team, and for another, she did not have any inherant memories of these sprites. She was crawling through a maintenance passageway and subjecting herself to extreme discomfort for someone whose name she did not even know. Rather than be ashamed, or feeling sorry for herself, Yuzuki only felt a sort of bitterness towards herself. And she knew why, too; she'd screwed up.

"I am sorry, Shosa-san," Yuzuki replied after a few moments over the clanking of the array, "I do not know if her name is on this list or not."

Dismissing the list off of her headset by tapping her environmental helmet, Yuzuki began moving forward in the passage again. Explaining took time.

Up ahead, she could now see the sillouette of the sprite she was looking for. Quickening her pace and dodging the floating remnants of what had once been electronics and pipe insulation, Yuzuki shot forward. A fine liquid mist, from some sort of pipe spray, clung to her environmental suit and dotted her visor as she passed through it. The pipe was covered in it as well. It looked like oil.

Yuzuki instinctively moved for the pipe, but a telltale hissing sound in the air and the view of the pipe stopped her in her tracks. She looked at the mist she had been crawling through with new eyes. It wasn't lube oil. It was blood.

The pipe had ruptured. In her mind's eye, everything clicked into place. The gravimetric engines were cooled by convection. The array was overheating, which meant that the cooling relay wasn't doing its job. Cooling exaust was evaporated heavy water. Of course the pipe would be broken, which would mean the coolant wouldn't be recirculating. Yuzuki's subconscious worked like clockwork, gears and teeth meshing together and creating a bigger picture, but her present self had hit a brick wall. Someone had died, here. It should have made a larger impression on her than it was. Or perhaps it was the sudden shock of seeing a visor blinded with crystalized blood, and a corpse not so different from herself floating in a maintenance tunnel, hopeless and wretched, that had so jarred her mind.

The steam, escaping into the vaccume of space, had cut straight through the sprite's environmental suit. On a good day, in a pressurized compartment, you'd get cut but you wouldn't die. There were hem-stat chambers. There were ways to save people from this sort of thing. But out here in space, with no air and nothing except what was inside your environmental suit, there wasn't even a good reason to check for a pulse. What could she do?

Yuzuki opened her mouth to report to the Shosa, but no sound came out. She choked, instead.

There is no point.

The vicious blade of escaping air had knocked the dead sprite clear of it, but Yuzuki could see now where the pipe had ruptured, and she could guess where that blade of escaping pressure would be aimed. Without looking at the extent of the injury, Yuzuki pulled apart the dead sprite's grip on her rivets and sheet metal. Thusly armed, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The equipment was still hot - she could feel the sheet metal as if it were red-hot through her gloves - and the compartment was getting blurry. Blinking, Yuzuki found her eyes watering.

No point at all.

Wazu continued to look around for something to immobilize the neko’s arm that he was tending to. However there was a lack of items to work with. In the room was a pile of guns taken dropped off by one of the power armors. He would take two rifles from the pile and remove any remaining ammunition from them including checking the barrel itself for a live round. Wazu would then tear at his kaki pants, reducing the length of one of his pant legs to get strips of fabric.

With the rifles, and the fabric ready Wazu would straighten out the neko’s arm and place a rifle on either side. The strips of fabric would be quickly tied around the arm and rifle in spots along her arm creating a split to help keep it immobilized.

The others seemed to be moving about, getting ready to leave. However the power armor he was talking to earlier instructed him to remain behind said power armor while performing treatment. For the moment this seemed to be the best course of action.

Kai moved forward at the mark, Steadily advancing behind his shield and firing his LASR in Semi-auto at anything he felt was moving too close as he moved along. "Hai, Yoroko" Kai responded to the former neko's question "It seems they are only throwing fodder from here to distract us, though, like they have the entire time" he voiced, continuing his advance until the indicated point.

As the Assault Team moved forward the explosions from Tom's SLAG rounds went off just ahead of them. The destruction blew several androids away while sending a fiery shockwave that washed over the Assault Team, nearly consuming them as their already taxed shielding alerted them to the damage they had just absorbed. The blast cost all of them their drones except for Aoiko and Yoroko whose position gave their AIES enough time to react. At the same time they continued to give and receive fire from their enemies down below. It was a dangerous exchange, like old battleships firing full broadsides at each other. AIES reports came to each pilot and informed them of the status of their shields. Nyton, Kai, and Yoroko's shields were already at orange, Aoiko was at yellow, while Nimura and Yuri's were reaching red status.

With the android's fire directed towards the Assault Team, the Support Team had no trouble evacuating the prisoners. A stray shot would occasionally ricochet up between them. A couple hit the Armors but was absorbed by their barriers. One of the prisoners being carried by Kei's unconcious but active Armor suddenly lost a hand due to one of those wayward shots. They would quickly arrive at the hallway that led back to the hangar where the Hoshi awaited them. Already the medical data that was available had been sent ahead to Sora.

"Freeman-Juni, this is Ketsurui-Shoi. I am already at the medical bay and ready to receive casualties." Sora commed over to him.

"Scanners show that you are clear to be received. No signs of enemy pursuit or activity in your path." Hinoto added.

Back at the torture room, Sanjuro's patients continued to struggle for life. His efforts did seem to be taking effect. While they were weak they still had a slim chance if they could just reach the medical center for more advanced treatment. For now though it would seem that they were ready to be moved.

The loss of his drones caused Nyton some concern but it couldn't be dwelt upon now. With the sustained fire coming from the enemy it was taking everything just to reach their goal. With the AIES update that the Support Team had managed to clear the elevator shaft Nyton began to unveil the next step. "Support Team is clear. Once we reach the opening to the fourth floor I'll fire off one of my missles to keep them down while we enter the next level. Takuma fire your bazooka while we exit to keep the enemy pushed down while we secure our ground. Stay alert, there could be an enemy presence waiting to engage us once we arrive." Nyton said although the scans showed none. In his mind though he hoped they weren't being somehow fooled since they really needed a chance to let their barriers recharge.

The map showed the team that they were to exit the shaft and assume a semi-circle around the entrance to defend themselves against enemy attack. When the Assault Team arrived at the entrance Nyton fired two missles down into the enemy, set to detonate midway between the fourth and fifth levels. "Go! Takuma fire!" he said over the comm net while exiting through the opening to the fourth floor.

Yukari blinked at the closed communication connection. What? Did not know? Yuzuki must not have bothered to ask Miharu for a name list. The sprite could have been too focused on her work, naturally suppressed updates from the ship that were not pertinent to repair ot it.

The Shosa frowned and started to float along toward the Multifunction Bay's exit. A sprite was incoming from some other repair, and Yukari asked Miharu for the sprite's name. It appeared over the sprite's head in green on Yukari's helmet display.

She asked where Yuzuki was, not wanting Miharu to track her just yet.

"She was near the gravimetric engines, Shosa," the sprite said sweetly. "I think she was investigating a malfunction."

"Who else was working in that area?"

"Anou ... " The sprite slowly named two others supporting Yuzuki.

Yukari thanked the sprite and headed in Yuzuki's direction. She wet her lips as she ducked under a sprite working on a portion of the ceiling for one reason or another, and she asked Miharu to seek the supposedly missing sprite.

"Ping unsuccessful," Miharu replied. "Even if she'd manually shut down her connection, the ping would be successful."

Yukari poked her head into the corridor and narrowed her eyes. From the suit's belt she took up a Type 30 flashlight and switched it on, shining it down the corridor.

She could see, in the distance, the drops, and part of Yuzuki's helmeted head. The tiny globs of intense red were a sharp contrast to the lightish blue of Yuzuki's AMES. "Yuzuki-san, report," she calmly asked.

By this time, Yuzuki had managed an abbreviated patch. Normally, high-pressure steam lines were irreparable, but unlike the sprite before her, Yuzuki had the good sense to turn one of the cutoff valves on down the line, and now a nice, thick metal plate had been fitted, rivited, and welded over the break.

The voice behind her came as a surprise, but not much of one in retrospect. She unsecured the valve on the line before wrapping an arm around the waist of the corpse. Making sure not to brush anything on the sides of the passageway with her new load, she began to float towards the Shosa, coming more into view. The drops of blood had spattered all over her suit, and the blackened bits where she had occassionally brushed piping were like streaks of paint across its surface - the marks of a different sort of battle. Beneath the suit, Yuzuki could feel the burns.

"Damage contained," she offered dully, "It was a leak in the exaust piping. All that needs to be done is to repressurize the heavy water heat exchanger, and give the system time to cool down. Then you can bring it fully online. Once we stop moving, though, I am going to have to take it offline for a little while. The bearings probably dried and ruptured from the heat and will need to be replaced."

For a moment, Yuzuki lifted her helmet and her eyes came level with the Shosa's. The look she gave was teary and hollow-eyed. The confidence in her voice was desperate. Just a small, scared sprite clinging on to her own shabby meaning of existance.